Bears president on Jay Cutler: "The whole organization is behind him 100 percent"

With a lockout in effect, Bears president Ted Phillips said his team's continuity will give them a "competitive" edge when football resumes, bolstering that key pieces are in place, including at quarterback.

"I'm a big supporter of Jay Cutler. He is our quarterback," Phillips told the Sun-Times Sunday. "He wants to be great, and we think he made great strides in his second year [with the Bears], and we think he's going to make even more strides, being with Mike Martz again, for 2011."

Phillips then called Cutler a "great talent" that's "only going to get better."

"The whole organization is behind him, 100 percent," Phillips said.

Phillips said he maintains optimism as owners and players try to work out a new collective bargaining agreement. But, Phillips said his team's continuity will give them an advantage over many other teams.

"I think it's huge, and with the labor uncertainty we have now, that's why we've preached, internally, to cover all bases and be ready because you never know when the deal is going to get done, and we're going to have a competitive edge whenever it ends," Phillips said. "We're focused on the 2011 season, and everyone is back. It's a tremendous help [to have continuity]. A tremendous help."

Asked if the club would consider trading Cutler, Phillips said, "I mean, no one is untradeable, in the grand scheme of things.

"But, we couldn't be happier with Jay as our QB... He's our guy. Our organization has never wavered in saying, 'Jay's our quarterback, and we're excited to have him.' "

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4 Comments

I am not worried about Cutler when the lockout ends. I am more worried about the 18 free agents we have that were on the roster in 2010, and the gaping holes we have with the guys that are left.

The offensive line isn't going to magically get better just because they are together for another year in the same system. The best guy on our line was mediocre at best. Bad continuity is not the same as good continuity.

The defensive line is pretty thin with Adams a free agent, and Tommie Harris released. We also don't have a consistent pass rush threat outside of Peppers. Izzy had a great season, but no one else showed up all year.

Briggs and Urlacher are the only linebackers under contract for 2011.

We still have a group of wideouts that don't threaten the defense.

So while Cutler and Martz will continue to get better, the rest of the team is pretty thin around him. Running back is decent, TE is not bad, but outside of that, when you can't block, none of those groups matter.

The Bears are one of the teams in the NFL that need this lockout resolved prior to the draft, preferably by April 11th, so we can have 2 weeks of free agency prior to the draft. There are way too many holes on this roster to let it go into June/July.

I mostly agree with Joe here. I do think the Bears are far better off if the lockout situation is resoved as soon as possible. On the other hand, I think that is also true of most of the other teams as well, so maybe it isn't any bigger a deal for the Bears.

Cutler
Will come back with a vengence but needs some protection and wideouts that fight for the ball yet we need to fix our line and sign our free agents.we have plenty of holes to fill.we hot beat by a better team just compare our wr to theirs and our dbs to theirs and our lines.just don't match up we need to get better to compete.